Federal Way Tri

[dex]

We PNW tri novices must be gluttons for punishment, because we turned out to do it again today. Well, Salsabike and I were doing it for the second time and Jocelyn was doing her first. I'll let them talk about their races. (I will say that indications are that we may all be a wee bit addicted.)

I was once again slooow. But, I'm ok with that.

I came out of the water with a splitting headache, and *really* dawdled in transition (upwards of 8 minutes if I read my watch correctly) in hopes that it would dull a bit before I got on the bike. It didn't. Eventually I talked myself into riding, but it took quite a bit of mumbling to myself to get there. (The spectators near my transition spot must have thought I was a crazy person.)

The bike ride was actually really pretty. But also much with the rolling hilly things. My front derailleur worked this time, so the hills didn't feel quite as evil as they could have...amazing how much easier it is to go uphill when you can actually shift into your little ring. Of course, I was so preoccupied with my headache that I wasn't paying attention to the rest of my body. At one point I started feeling really queasy, and then realized it was because my heart rate had shot up to 189. Eep! (I iz smrt.)

I walked almost the entire run again. My knee only started getting cranky toward the very end, and I think that was mostly because of the amount of downhill (which also meant plenty of uphill, but that doesn't seem to bother my knee as much) we'd covered on the course. I was just tired and cranky because of my headache. I sort of spontaneously broke into a run on the approach to the finish, but I think that was mostly because I realized that there was water (and fruit, and bagels, and time to sit down) at the end. Hah!

And now a pic of the three of us at the end with our finisher's medals around our necks. (Pay no attention to whatever weird thing it is my hair is trying to do. It had a mind of its own today.)